All the Pretty Faces

Firstly I am Mormon. Secondly I have researched a lot of video tape of Brandon Flowers including live shows, interviews and articles online. The song is top notch, definitely. I suppose I have as good opinion as anyone about this lyrics, and I don't think anyone has nailed it down completely until now. I believe it is about Brandon's girlfriend who became his wife. Somewhat like Edward in The Twilight series (written by Stephanie Meyers... a Mormon... no accident), Brandon found he did not want to even touch his girlfriend/future wife because he loved her so much. Why? This is supremely ironical... he couldn't love her or touch her and certainly he couldn't f**** her... because he loved her. Put simply, he was crazy about his girlfriend and future wife. He would do anything just to be (his girlfiend/wife's) man. Did this reaction come about because he is Mormon? I think so, certainly. The song is about eternal love... an LDS doctrine. This was a different kind of love for him, quite apparently... from Brandon's perspective. One that he had never experienced or even imagined existed. It was a holy and virtues kind of love. The song says "your not going anywhere without me" an obvious reference to a romantic love that will exist after death only in the Celestial Heaven. Being a Mormon especialy outside of Utah means you are stranger in a strange land, amplify that by being in Las Vegas and a bonified rock star who travels around the world "to different places". Even Non-Mormon people who agree with the doctrine about chastity, complete abstinence before marraige and absolute fedility after... often have a difficult time understanding the Mormon reasoning behind a belief in eternal marraige and also eternal love. Let me explain something briefly. If you were to go up to a Mormon and ask if they would pull a rip cord on a suicide jacket, IF THE PROPHET asked them personaly, they would probably say no... or even more likely deflect this question. If you had a lie detector with you however, and used it, you would often get an affirmative response to this question (the cat would be out of the bag, so to speak). Furthermore you would get a yes response more often from the successfull or more highly educated group of Mormons which might surprise you (assuming the lie detector). This might cause some to conclude that LDS folks are part of a group like the knights of the round table, or just the opposite... like some fanaticle Al Quida-type group. Luckily, the Prophet of the LDS Church almost never requires that kind of action, but theoreticly The Prophet could require this at any time of any member. So when Brandon Sings this song as seen live on YouTube it is no B.S. Part of the motivation behind this amazing loyalty to The LDS Church that Mormons have is they don't want to screw up their Celestial marraige and Celestial love to their beloved spouse. Death would be much preferable to losing their spouse for eternity. So all the pretty faces, in all the different places.. is looked at in a different way then someone not of Flower's faith. Quite simply they could tempt him to transgress sufficiently, that he might lose his eternal love, (his girlfriend who later became his wife)and thus cause a spiritual death and quite possibly cause Brandon to commit actual suicide... like a shotgun to his head as the song says is how Brandon Flowers percieves the situation. I suppose all of this seems fantasticle for Non-Mormons and it is probably next to impossible to grasp some of the nuances of the song. I doubt even Brandon's band-mates even understand what the song is about completely. If you aren't Mormon you won't get the Celestial Marraige references (nor how criticaly important that Celestial Love is to a a true believing Mormon like Brandon Flowers) unless you have had missionary lessons AND done quite a bit of research on the subject. (Knock yourself out... the subject matter is very deep... even lifelong older Mormon's often don't understand some of the complexity of it.) But the bottom line if your a Mormon like Brandon Flowers is this... you want to be with your girlfriend/wife forever and ever and ever. Now since Marraige, Brandon and his wife have had two kids. Mormons are not Catholic Priests and Nun's so before marraige and after marraige is completely different. However, it is obvious from this song that Brandon is very solitious of his wifes wishes, particularly in regards to sex. She gets what she wants when she wants it how she wants it... so Brandon is completely selfless in this regard. And if she said to never touch her... he would do it and be completely celibate and be happy about it because that would again show how much he loved his wife. Certainly two sons indicate this is not the case at this time. But if for some reason Brandon's wife does not want to do anything "phisical", then Brandon is not just O.K. with that.. he is enthusiasticly o.k. with that... indeed the whole song cries out his true feelings on this subject. But either way it his deepest desire not to be selfish to her, ever. This despite being a rock star and having an over abundance of "energy" (so to speak). His love for his wife is completely enthusiasticly unselfish... very much a Mormon concept. However, this song is not about going on an LDS mission. This song is personal. It is about Brandon and his then Mormon (convert) girlfriend. The two years that he sings of are his own two years he did NOT go on a Mission. This is a time however that he became convinced that the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints is true and how important turning away from error i.e. sin is and was at the time. It is absolutely urgent that he become more diligent in his adherence to living the commandments of God (note the urgent tempo of the song). Which brings us back to how he looks at his wife (then his girlfriend). He must live a sufficiently virtous and pious life... does this mean perfect? Honestly, I don't know where the wiggle room is for sin... but to say it causes consternation and trepidation for some Mormons... in truth most Mormons... is an understatement. If he (Brandon) does not live a sufficiently moral life... he could lose his wife in the afterlife FOREVER... and the very thought of that possibility is freaking him out. And he needs help. From his soon-to-be wife, God, etc. To quote another song "I need direction to perfection"... i.e. moral perfection. "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier" refers to Brandon not going on a mission for two years, but in a sense being a different kind of missionary... the same type of person who would vigorously slam the door in a LDS Missionaries road weary face, might listen to The Killers songs over and over again. The Killers songs often talk about death, phisical death, spiritual death, romantic love, spiritual love, redemption, repentance, Jesus Christ... and so forth. All the kind of things a Mormon Missionary wouldn't be allowed to say because he would never be allowed to set foot inside your home. But using poetic verse and music Brandon Flowers feels that he publishes peace and expresses emotions that couldn't otherwise be communicated particularly to Non-LDS people. So he has soul but he is not a soldier. (Inside the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints consider their missionaries to be soldiers of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour... a very different perception than those outside the LDS faith typicaly have, to be sure). Furthermore he wants to be a great husband and a great rock star... in the sense that God wants him to be. Yet he is imperfect... and his very real trepidation about that comes out in the lyrics to many of his songs that he wrote. Is he good enough? Will he make it to the Celestial kingdom? Will he be good enough for his wife who he has been taught all of his life... because she is a Mormon woman she is exalted, and almost but not quit worthy of worship. So you see the problem... he is trapped by his own limitations... his own imperfections. And how does he get out of this mess, is what he is singing in many of his songs. To Non-Mormons this may seem like a horible situation. But in this sense Brandon Flowers sees it as a good situation, because at least he sees what he is up against. Better to know the truth than to be essentially drugged into a complacent immoral attitude or lolled into an evil way of looking at the world. Better to repent than to lose his girlfriend/wife forever. So he is glad he knows the trap he is in. But as the song says he needs help and lots of it (of the divine type). His wife (then girlfriend) "would shake when she pleaded (bleaded)" to God that Brandon would overcome his sins so they could be married in the Temple while Brandon would sing his song... he no doubt practised some of his songs on the piano in his house in his girlfriend/wifes presence etc. etc. etc. How often did Brandon's mom plead to God that Brandon's father would convert to Mormonism and be sufficiently devoute to ensure the contination of the relationship in the next life?? A lot. Not just a prayer but a pleading and shacking prayer. A prayer that you can barely imagine the sincerity of it if you are not LDS and your spouse is not a member. He saw his beloved wife doing the same thing as his Mom... which isn't surprising, after all, if you think about it. From what I have gathered Brandon Flowers has married his wife only outside the Temple. He has not done so inside the Temple... yet (the operative word here is 'yet'). I must say, that reading this song is a little bit like reading hyroglifics. If you don't know the language you don't know. A little bit of internet and timeline analysis will prove that Brandon did not go on a formal LDS Church Mission. Also it is obvious that this song is about his life. Watch the YouTube video of the live performances. Look how into the song he is. He is really feeling this song... not just singing it. Notice that he almost falls down at one point. This is no ordinary song! Normally for just about any Killers songs you can think of you can find multiple live performance video from multiple locations.. but not this song. Oh no. There are only two live performance videos of this song... and one of the videos focuses on the drummer Vanuci most of the time but luckily the other one shows Brandon Flower's raw emotion for everyone to see. Basicly what happens in the video is Brandon Flowers rips his heart out and shows it to the crowd (and the camera), so to speak. This is one of Greatest Live Rock performances of one of the greatest rock songs of all time, and thus that video is one of the greatest rock videos of all time. And it might well be the only one. Amazingly, since 2005 there has been no other live performances of this song by The Killers (to my knowledge). If you have read this comment down to here, then you certainly now know why. Imagine a shy and stammering Brandon Flowers trying to explain this song to the interviewers!! It would be like throwing the naive lamb to the ravenous wolves!! No... this song cuts too close to his heart so he has not sung it publicly (apparantly) since 2005. Maybe The Killers will NEVER perform the song again... one of greatest songs ever in the history of Rock And Roll. Maybe the best Rock And Roll song ever, by any band. Now you see why.